History of American Socialisms Part 3

Brook Farm; Ma.s.sachusetts; 115 members; 200 acres; duration 5 years.

Brooke's experiment; Ohio; few members; no further particulars.

Bureau Co. Phalanx; Illinois; small; no particulars.

Clarkson Industrial a.s.sociation; New York; 420 members; 2000 acres; duration from 6 to 9 months.

Clermont Phalanx; Ohio; 120 members; 900 acres; debt $19,000; duration 2 years or more.

Columbian Phalanx; Ohio; no particulars.

Garden Grove; Iowa; no particulars.

Goose Pond Community; Pennsylvania; 60 members; duration a few months.

Grand Prairie Community; Ohio; no particulars.

Hopedale; Ma.s.sachusetts; 200 members; 500 acres; duration not stated, but commonly reported to be 17 or 18 years.

Integral Phalanx; Illinois; 30 families; 508 acres; duration 17 months.

Jefferson Co. Industrial a.s.sociation; New York; 400 members; 1200 acres of land; duration a few months.

Lagrange Phalanx; Indiana; 1000 acres; no further particulars.

Leraysville Phalanx; Pennsylvania; 40 members; 300 acres; duration 8 months.

Marlboro a.s.sociation; Ohio; 24 members; had "a load of debt;" duration nearly 4 years.

McKean Co. a.s.sociation; Pennsylvania; 30,000 acres; no further particulars.

Moorhouse Union; New York; 120 acres; duration "a few months."

North American Phalanx; New Jersey; 112 members; 673 acres; debt $17,000; duration 12 years.

Northampton a.s.sociation; Ma.s.sachusetts; 130 members; 500 acres of land; debt $40,000; duration 4 years.

Ohio Phalanx; 100 members; 2,200 acres; deeply in debt; duration 10 months.

One-mentian (meaning probably one-mind) Community; Pennsylvania; 800 acres; duration one year.

Ontario Phalanx; New York; brief duration.

Prairie Home Community; Ohio; 500 acres; debt broke it up; duration one year.

Raritan Bay Union; New Jersey; few members; 268 acres.

Sangamon Phalanx; Illinois; no particulars.

Skaneateles Community; New York; 150 members; 354 acres; debt $10,000; duration 2-1/2 years.

Social Reform Unity; Pennsylvania; 20 members; 2,000 acres; debt $2,400; duration about 10 months.

Sodus Bay Phalanx; New York; 300 members; 1,400 acres; duration a "short time."

Spring Farm a.s.sociation; Wisconsin; 10 families; duration 3 years.

Sylvania a.s.sociation; Pennsylvania; 145 members; 2394 acres; debt $7,900; duration nearly 2 years.

Trumbull Phalanx; Ohio; 1500 acres; duration 2-1/2 years.

Washtenaw Phalanx; Michigan; no particulars.

Wisconsin Phalanx; 32 families; 1,800 acres; duration 6 years.

_Recapitulation and Comments._

1. _Localities._ The Owen group were distributed among the States as follows: in Indiana, 4; in New York, 3; in Ohio, 2; in Pennsylvania, 1; in Tennessee, 1.

The Fourier group were located as follows: in Ohio, 8; in New York, 6; in Pennsylvania, 6; in Ma.s.sachusetts, 3; in Illinois, 3; in New Jersey, 2; in Michigan, 2; in Wisconsin, 2; in Indiana, 1; in Iowa, 1.

Indiana had the greatest number in the first group, and the least in the second.

New England was not represented in the Owen group; and only by three a.s.sociations in the Fourier group; and those three were all in Ma.s.sachusetts.

The southern states were represented by only one a.s.sociation--that of Nashoba, in the Owen group--and that was little more than an eleemosynary attempt of Frances Wright to civilize the negroes.

The two groups combined were distributed as follows: in Ohio, 10; in New York, 9; in Pennsylvania, 7; in Indiana, 5; in Ma.s.sachusetts, 3; in Illinois, 3; in New Jersey, 2; in Michigan, 2; in Wisconsin, 2; in Tennessee, 1; in Iowa, 1.

2. _Number of members._ The figures in our epitome (reckoning five persons to a family when families are mentioned), give an aggregate of 4,801 members: but these belong to only twenty-five a.s.sociations. The numbers of the remaining twenty are not definitely reported. The average of those reported is about 192 to an a.s.sociation. Extending this average to the rest, we have a total of 8,641.

The numbers belonging to single a.s.sociations vary from 15 to 900; but in a majority of cases they were between 100 and 200.

3. _The amount of land_ reported is enormous. Averaging it as we did in the case of the number of members, we make a grand total of 136,586 acres, or about 3,000 acres to each a.s.sociation! This is too much for any probable average. We will leave out as exceptional, the 60,000 acres reported as belonging to New Harmony and the McKean Co.

a.s.sociation. Then averaging as before, we have a grand total of 44,624 acres, or about 1,000 acres to each a.s.sociation.

Judging by our own experience we incline to think that this fondness for land, which has been the habit of Socialists, had much to do with their failures. Farming is about the hardest and longest of all roads to fortune: and it is the kind of labor in which there is the most uncertainty as to modes and theories, and of course the largest chance for disputes and discords in such complex bodies as a.s.sociations.

Moreover the l.u.s.t for land leads off into the wilderness, "out west,"

or into by-places, far away from railroads and markets; whereas Socialism, if it is really ahead of civilization, ought to keep near the centers of business, and at the front of the general march of improvement. We should have advised the Phalanxes to limit their land-investments to a minimum, and put their strength as soon as possible into some form of manufacture. Almost any kind of a factory would be better than a farm for a Community nursery. We find hardly a vestige of this policy in Macdonald's collections. The saw-mill is the only form of mechanism that figures much in his reports. It is really ludicrous to see how uniformly an old saw-mill turns up in connection with each a.s.sociation, and how zealously the brethren made much of it; but that is about all they attempted in the line of manufacturing.

Land, land, land, was evidently regarded by them as the mother of all gain and comfort. Considering how much they must have run in debt for land, and how little profit they got from it, we may say of them almost literally, that they were "wrecked by running aground."

4. _Amount of debt._ Macdonald's reports on this point are few and indefinite. The sums owed are stated for only seven of the a.s.sociations. They vary from $1,000 to $40,000. Five other a.s.sociations are reported as "very much in debt," "deeply in debt,"

&c. The exact indebtedness of these and of the remaining thirty-three, is probably beyond the reach of history. But we have reason to think that nearly all of them bought, to begin with, a great deal more land than they paid for. This was the fas.h.i.+on of the socialistic schools and of the times.

5. _The duration_ of fourteen a.s.sociations is not reported; twelve lasted less than 1 year; two 1 year; four between 1 and 2 years; three 2 years; four between 2 and 3 years; one between 3 and 4 years; one 4 years; one 5 years; one 6 years; one 12 years, and one (it is said) 17 years. All died young, and most of them before they were two years old.